


I'll be Home for Christmas

by lifeaftermeteor



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Christmas Fluff, Fix-It, Fluff, Holidays, M/M, Mentions of Other Voltron Paladins, Post-Canon, Post-Canon Fix-It, Romance, holiday fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-14
Updated: 2019-12-14
Packaged: 2021-02-26 00:33:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,913
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21794611
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lifeaftermeteor/pseuds/lifeaftermeteor
Summary: The Garrison gives Shiro an unexpected reprieve from his duties for the holiday, and so he and Keith spend it together.
Relationships: Keith/Shiro (Voltron)
Comments: 10
Kudos: 47





	I'll be Home for Christmas

**Author's Note:**

> I got bit by the festive bug early this year and so YOU, dear reader, get to benefit from my nostalgia. I offer you this little bit of holiday fluff to keep you warm this holiday season.

The Garrison had authorized minimum manning at the beginning of the Christmas week which Shiro had anticipated and had accordingly encouraged the ATLAS crew currently on ground duty while docked on Earth to take advantage of the extra time off. What he had _not_ foreseen was the personalized note from Admiral Aldeia all but ordering Shiro himself to stand down for the week. [1] This left Shiro with suddenly far more personal time than he had originally planned.

A trans-galactic call to Keith on Daibazaal had remedied that dilemma.

“You’re free for Christmas?” Keith asked, sounding stunned.

“Unexpectedly.” Shiro grimaced. “For several days, as it happens.”

“Well, shit. I’ll be right there.”

The response startled Shiro. “Really?” he asked, still skeptical. Keith was hardly the traditionally festive type, and his work with the Blades and the Galra Republic kept him busy and far from Earth… 

“Yes, really. I’ve been working my ass off for _months_ and we’ve _finally_ reached a lull. I’m taking personal time.” He paused for a moment to worry his lip between his teeth before he added, “It’s just another day here, after all. And I’ve been holding off taking leave until you would be around for awhile.”

Shiro made note of that, fighting another grimace. His deployments with ATLAS were long and didn’t often cross into Galra space. “You’ll only get about a week.”

Keith smiled at him. “I’ll take it.”

*****

No sooner than Keith had arrived, he had grabbed Shiro off the flightline and the two of them headed into downtown Plaht City to the garden and hardware supply store. This close to the holiday, there wasn’t much left in the realm of Christmas items, but they made do. They grabbed the last small tree in stock and a ream of white lights, but as they were walking toward the check out kiosks, Keith paused. “I wonder if they’d have yarn…” he muttered.

“Yarn?” Shiro asked. “Why?”

As luck would have it, there _was_ a small craft section back they way they had come. Shiro watched Keith inspect the spools, judging the fibers with a criteria secret to all but himself. Keith eventually settled on a selection of colors—which looked to Shiro to be suspiciously reminiscent of a certain Team Voltron—before ushering them both back to the cashier.

As they left the store and walked back to Shiro’s vehicle with their festive haul, Keith instructed, “Start picking up sticks.”

Shiro turned to find his partner doing exactly that: Keith knelt to collect a thin branch that had fallen from some nearby tree and stripped the last remaining leaves that still clung to it. “I feel like we’re on a mission and I didn’t get the brief,” Shiro said.

Keith gave him an apologetic smile. “It will make sense, but it’s easier to just _show_ you when we get home. But first: grocery store.”

“I have food at home—”

“But do you have _festive_ food?”

Keith’s question sounded like he already knew the answer. Shiro replied anyway. “No,” he admitted, “but what exactly counts as ‘festive food’ anyway?”

Keith grinned up at him. “You’ll see.”

* * *

They returned to Shiro’s quarters, supplies in-tow, and officially commenced the merrymaking...but not before Shiro grabbed Keith’s wrist and pulled him in close.

“Hey,” he said.

“Hey yourself,” Keith answered, but the words lacked bite. 

“I’ve missed you,” Shiro told him, dropping a chaste kiss to his forehead. “Love you,” he added as he tilted Keith’s chin upward and leaned down for a decidedly _not_ chaste kiss.

Keith hummed appreciatively into the kiss and melted against his chest, delicate fingers coming to rest over Shiro’s heart. Shiro’s hands slipped forward to hold Keith fully against him, one hand cradling the back of his head while the other dipped into the small of his back.

When they parted, Keith sighed, breathless and flushed, “Love you too.”

“Will everything keep?”

“What?”

Shiro huffed a laugh. “Our supplies. Will they keep if we leave them here?”

“Oh. Ye—”

“Good.” Shiro turned toward the bedroom, Keith’s hand in his. From behind him, he heard Keith laugh as he allowed himself to be led.

* * *

“Stop eating the supplies,” Keith reprimanded as Shiro threw back another handful of popcorn.

“But—”

“I need it for the garland.”

“You don’t need _all_ of it,” Shiro reasoned. Keith only glared at him over the needle in his hands and the coils of popcorn between them, which made Shiro chuckle and acquiesce, “Okay, okay.” 

They lapsed into a comfortable silence as Shiro went back to threading yarn between pairs of sticks they’d collected from outside. Keith had shown him how to do the first one, expertly twisting the vibrantly colored strands around the crossed sticks until they formed diamonds upon diamonds. _God’s Eyes_ Keith had called them and Shiro’s attention kept drifting back to the growing mound of them at his elbow, the diamonds staring up at him while he struggled to keep the strands as tightly bound as Keith’s had been. [2] 

“My pop and I use to do this.”

Shiro looked up at the confession, the words soft. He found Keith pensive where he sat across from him, fingers still carefully threading popcorn. “He was always on-call during the holidays, but...but we had enough time to do stuff like this. We’d decorate and watch movies and he’d read to me...it was nice, just the two of us.”

Shiro left Keith with his memories for a moment, knowing how deep the nostalgia went for Keith to bring it up unprompted. At last, he murmured, heartfelt, “Thank you for sharing it with me.”

Keith smiled to himself, eyes still on his work.

* * *

Once they had finished assembling their decorations, Shiro and Keith turned their attention back to the tree itself. Their tree was small but plucky, they had determined, and so it had earned pride of place on top of the living room cabinets. They worked together to bind the branches in lights and popcorn, the scent of pine filling their noses and Shiro found himself at last feeling a bit of the holiday spirit. 

He stepped back to admire their tree for a moment as Keith gathered a handful of the God’s Eyes and started to hang them. With intent and serious deliberation from the looks of it. Shiro’s attention now fully on his partner, he felt a smile appear on his face.

“You could help with this too, you know,” Keith grumbled.

“You clearly have a methodology,” Shiro told him, fighting a chuckle. “Would hate to disrupt your system.”

Keith paused and sighed. “I don’t mind,” he said, sounding a bit embarrassed.

“You promise not to rearrange the ones I put up?”

“No.”

Shiro laughed heartily at this. “Can I have two? Two that you don’t rearrange?”

“....fine.” 

Shiro turned to gather his own handful of decorations and returned to the tree. He ducked his head toward Keith and puckered his lips expectantly. Keith rolled his eyes, but kissed him all the same, hints of a smile ghosting across his own lips.

As they worked, a thought popped into Shiro’s head. “So, did you open your presents on Christmas _Eve_ or Christmas _Day_?”

“Day. Always.”

Shiro smiled at the ferocity of the answer. “My grandparents always let me open _one_ present on Christmas Eve. I could pick whatever I wanted to open, but I only got one. At first, I would go for the biggest one...but then they tricked me one year—put a tiny thing in a big box—so I started shaking things to hear what rattled the most.” 

Keith hummed. “That’s cute.”

“Hey, I was a cute kid.” 

“You’re still cute,” Keith contended and Shiro felt his cheeks burn as warmth spread in his chest.

Once the decorations were hung, they stepped back to admire their work. Keith pressed in close to wrap his arms around Shiro’s waist and rest his head against his chest. Shiro meanwhile slung his arm around Keith’s shoulder. 

Keith hummed then, sounding displeased. “It needs something on top,” he said. “I forgot about that…”

Shiro considered their options and smiled. “How much of a nerd will you allow me to be?”

“Shiro, you have _always been_ a nerd, for as long as I’ve known you. So.”

“Be right back,” he said, slipping from Keith’s grip and walking into the small room he had re-purposed as his home office. Crossing to the bookcase, he grabbed the to-scale model and walked back into the common area to rejoin Keith.

Keith took one look at the miniature Voltron and burst into laughter.

“We could tie him up at the top with the leftover yarn!” Shiro suggested while Keith buried his face in his hands. “It’ll work, right?”

“Oh God...yes,” Keith conceded, “yes, that’ll work.”

* * *

Shiro sat on the couch in his quarters and sighed deeply, content. The only light in the apartment came from the tree before him and the dim surface lights in the kitchen where Keith worked. The mobile in Shiro’s hand buzzed on occasion as each member of Team Voltron checked in from their respective locales, wishing the collective a happy holiday...and providing commentary on Keith and Shiro’s choice in decorations. Shiro smiled to himself and set the device aside as the lights in the kitchen went off signaling Keith’s imminent return.

He looked up as Keith walked over to the couch, carrying a pair of steaming mugs in his hands. He passed one to Shiro, who accepted with a word of thanks.

“We are both going to regret this later,” [3] Keith told him, sounding amused at the prospect as he sat down beside him. 

Shiro hummed as his sipped at the cocoa. Perfect. “Perhaps,” he admitted, “but that’s a problem for _future_ us.”

Keith snorted and wriggled in closer, their bodies pressed flush against one another, before kicking his feet out before him and mirroring Shiro’s position. “Did you send the picture of our tree topper to the team?” he asked, taking a sip from the steaming mug in his hands.

“Yes,” Shiro said. “Allura thinks it’s cute, and Hunk and Pidge love it judging from their replies in the group chat. I think Lance is dying of secondhand embarrassment.”

“Good.”

Shiro chuckled and the two of them lapsed into a comfortable silence. As his thoughts drifted, he realized he couldn’t remember the last time they had been like this, enjoying one another’s company, just the two of them. The ease of intergalactic travel—made possible by Allura’s collaboration with the Holt siblings—gave a whole new meaning to the phrase ‘long-distance relationship.’ And yet, they’d made it work. Rendezvous between missions and port calls, mere days at a time....for a year, they had made it work. Shiro cast a sidelong glance at his partner, his best friend, the love of his life and _knew_ . Deep in his heart he knew they’d _always_ make it work. The realization hit him so soundly, he found it was suddenly hard to breathe.

“I...didn’t bring anything,” Keith murmured then, “as a gift.”

Shiro shook his head, setting aside his mug and wrapping his arms around Keith. “I have everything I want, right here,” Shiro assured. They shared a kiss and Keith ducked his head into the crook of Shiro’s neck. “I wouldn’t change a thing.” A beat, and then, “Even our ridiculous tree topper.” Keith laughed against him and the sound rang in Shiro’s ears.

**Author's Note:**

> [1] Highly unlikely in reality, but hey - suspended disbelief.
> 
> [2] My Texan grandmother taught me how to make God’s Eyes or [Ojo de Dios](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God%27s_eye) around Christmas time, and thus...into the story it goes. 
> 
> [3] Headcanon alert - dairy isn’t a fan of either of our boys.


End file.
